\n<\/p>\n
Okay, so I\u2019m going to say some stuff at the start of this post that\u2019s going to be a bit of a drag, but I want you to stick with me. It\u2019ll be worth it, I promise, and there\u2019s no way around what I have to say at the top without going through it. So I\u2019m just going to jump in, and I\u2019ll meet you on the other side. Here we go\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n America\u2019s current crisis isn\u2019t one crisis, it\u2019s a hundred.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve got a crisis in access to medical care, and it\u2019s about to get worse. We\u2019re in a deep crisis in mental health care, and again, it\u2019s about to get worse. Ditto access to reproductive healthcare. Two of the last five presidential elections have been won by candidates who lost the popular vote. That\u2019s a crisis. Because of gerrymandering, vote suppression, and voter clustering, elections in the House and Senate and state races are growing\u00a0less likely to reflect the will of the electorate. That\u2019s a crisis. The interference of American intelligence agencies with the just-concluded presidential election is a crisis, as is the likelihood that we will never get a full accounting of that interference.<\/span><\/p>\n Also a crisis: Police violence against people of color, and police impunity when such violence is committed. The Republican Party\u2019s manifest unwillingness to hold the Trump administration accountable for conforming its actions to the constitution. Rising\u00a0income inequality and persistent poverty. The\u00a0incompetence and malignance of so many of the administration\u2019s appointees. Their plans to dismantle public schools and universities, undermine academic freedom, and open up the public-money\u00a0spigot to predatory for-profit colleges. The weakening of international organizations and agreements. The undermining of essential diplomatic relationships. Threats to free speech and scientific research and the arts and the climate.<\/span><\/p>\n And of course there\u2019s so much more I could add to the list. (I didn\u2019t even mention the Russians.)\u00a0No one person can fight all of it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026you still with me? Excellent. Because here\u2019s the good news:<\/span><\/p>\n No one person can fight all of this, but no one person needs to. Wherever you put your effort in the coming days and years, your effort is needed. Whatever work you do to fight this crisis is important work. What\u2019s vital is not what precisely you do, but that you do something\u2014that you pitch in and lend a hand. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to imagine that there\u2019s one crucial path\u00a0to preventing the trainwreck we\u2019re watching unfold, and that our obligation is to find that one thing to do\u2014impeaching Trump, saving ACA, ending\u00a0voter suppression\u2014and do it. But that\u2019s not how this works. We need to fight on every front at once, because all the work is necessary. That may seem overwhelming, but it shouldn\u2019t be, because again, nobody can do it all, and nobody needs to.<\/span><\/p>\n The work is ongoing, on a hundred fronts. All you need to do is be a part of it, somehow, somewhere. Everything helps. Everything is vital.<\/span><\/p>\n And here\u2019s some more good news: You don\u2019t have to reinvent the wheel. If you\u2019re someone with loads of organizing experience and lots of resources and a robust network of fellow activists and you see a gap in the existing web of work\u00a0and you want to jump in and fill it, that\u2019s great. That\u2019s happening all over the place right now, and it\u2019s great. But if you\u2019re not any of those things\u2014if you\u2019re new to all this and want to help but don\u2019t really know what you\u2019re doing\u2014that\u2019s okay too. It\u2019s better than okay, actually. It\u2019s wonderful. Because it means that the struggle to fix what\u2019s wrong with the world has one more person in it today than it did yesterday, and building that struggle is how we win. So hi, and welcome, and thank you!<\/span><\/p>\n So how do you get involved if you haven\u2019t been involved before? One of the best ways is to\u00a0find a group that has<\/em> been\u00a0involved before, and help them out. Most of these crises aren\u2019t new, and none of these struggles are. Trump is making things worse, but he hasn\u2019t invented anything. People have been fighting people like him, and stuff like the stuff he\u2019s trying to do, for decades. Centuries. They know how to do this. They\u2019ve been doing it. They\u2019re doing it right now. And they\u2019d love to have your help.<\/span><\/p>\n So start brainstorming. Is there an organization you\u2019re\u00a0a fan of\u00a0but have never been involved with? Google them, and see if they\u2019re looking for volunteers. Is there a local politician you\u2019ve always admired, or a losing candidate for local office you wish had won? Drop them a line. Are you a union member, but inactive? Get active. Is there a rally\u00a0coming up in your community? Find\u00a0out who\u2019s organizing it, and offer to lend a hand with logistics or setup. Get in touch with a local food pantry, or homeless shelter, or teen crisis hotline, or abortion clinic. If you can afford to donate money, do, but while you\u2019re at it, see if there\u2019s a way for you to help more directly. <\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ll have some more concrete suggestions for how and where to lend a hand later, but really, don\u2019t stress out too much about what to do. Don\u2019t let the perfect be the enemy of getting off of your butt and doing something<\/em>. Because it\u2019s by doing something that you\u2019ll really start figuring out how to be of use, and learning how.<\/span><\/p>\n Maybe the first place you volunteer will be an amazing and wonderful and empowering\u00a0experience. Maybe it\u2019ll set your life on a completely new trajectory. But if it doesn\u2019t, it\u2019ll still be worth doing. Because you\u2019ll learn a bunch of stuff by doing it. You\u2019ll learn what you\u2019re good at, and what you like doing, and what kinds of work are sustainable for you. But you\u2019ll also learn a lot about how organizations and movements work, and what makes them succeed or fail. You\u2019ll make connections with other people, connections that may persist after your relationship with the group is over. And crucially, you\u2019ll get out of your comfort zone. You\u2019ll expand<\/em> your comfort zone. You\u2019ll get more comfortable with\u00a0not just the work itself, but with the phone calls and emails that put you in the room. You\u2019ll learn how to do all the stuff, both practical and logistical, that\u2019s going to help you be more useful in the next project you take on.<\/span><\/p>\n You may have noticed that I\u2019m mostly talking in this post about getting involved with organizations and institutions. There\u2019s a few reasons for that:<\/span><\/p>\n The first\u00a0is that a lot of folks have written good guides to taking individual action, particularly political action. (Here\u2019s a very well-shared one<\/a>, here\u2019s a great one that was just published today<\/a>, and here\u2019s an excellent one that leans more toward grassroots social action<\/a>. This is good too<\/a>, and you\u2019ll never go far wrong following Woody Guthrie\u2019s lead<\/a>.) If\u00a0you\u2019re reading this post, you\u2019ve probably encountered\u00a0at least one of those guides already.<\/span><\/p>\n A second reason is that, as I said at the top of this post, this crisis is going to put extraordinary\u00a0stresses on regular people and the local institutions that help them get by. Keeping people fed under Trump is part of fighting Trump. Getting people access to birth control under Trump is part of fighting Trump. Supporting teachers under Trump is part of fighting Trump. We need to be doing it all.<\/span><\/p>\n A third reason is that working in organizations gives you skills you can\u2019t get anywhere else. You may not be an organizer now, and if you aren\u2019t, you won\u2019t turn into one overnight, but this is stuff you can learn, and one of the best ways to learn it is to apprentice with people who know it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But the fourth\u00a0reason is maybe the biggest, and it\u2019s this: We don\u2019t know what\u2019s coming, and we\u2019re going to need each other when it gets here. The worst-case scenarios for democracy and civil liberties in the coming years are really bad, and even if the worst cases don\u2019t materialize, building robust networks of friends and allies in the struggle is going to be vital to winning victories, maintaining our equilibrium, and staying\u00a0alive. And while I\u2019d be the last person on earth to deprecate the importance of online relationships, we\u2019re going to need to be connected with each other on a face-to-face basis too.<\/span><\/p>\n Calling your senator is a good and important thing to do, but it doesn\u2019t make you less isolated. Donating to someone\u2019s Go Fund Me may help them, and society, a lot, but it doesn\u2019t prepare you for the next fight.\u00a0Tweeting is important\u2014I\u2019m a big fan of tweeting<\/a>\u2014but in the years to come I\u2019m going to want to\u00a0have good people nearby as well. I have some now, but I want to have more, so I\u2019m going to go find them and work with them.<\/span><\/p>\n